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The vord Queen took the child and held him in front of her She let hi him with her alien eyes Then, quite calmly, she held the boy close to her body with one arm and twisted his head sharply to one side His wails ceased

Invidia found herself about to lose control of her stomach, but then she saw that the child still lived His neck isted to the breaking point, his breaths coasps - but he lived

The vord Queen stared at the sobbing mother for a moment Then she said, "She feels pain I have not harmed her, yet she feels pain"

"The child is hers," Invidia said "She loves him"

The Queen tilted her head "And he loves her in return?"

"Yes"

"Why?"

"Because it is the nature of love to be answered in kind Especially by children"

The Queen tilted her head to the other side Then she stared down at the child Then at the young mother Then at the man seated beside her She leaned down and touched her lips to the child's hair and paused for aslowly and carefully, she released the child frosobs, holding the child close

The vord Queen turned and left the cottage Invidia followed

The young Queen walked up a nearby hillside and, once they had crested the hill andout before them, stood with her back to the little steadholt for a ti your kind"

"No," Invidia said simply

"When it is not," she said, "it is a kind of pain to the one who has loved"

"Yes"

"It is irrational," the vord Queen said - and to Invidia's shock, there was a quiet heat to the words An anger The vord Queen was angry

Invidia felt her ers flexed, the nails lengthening and contracting "Wasteful Inefficient"

Invidia said nothing